I started the plastic challenge by waking up Saturday morning in a plastic free bed. My mattress is fabric and my bedframe is made of wood. I put my feet on the wooden floor and started my day. I had to let light come in to wake me up in the morning since my alarm clock is plastic. I proceeded to the bathroom and things went down hill from there. The toilet seat, knobs on the sink and toothbrush and toothpaste are all plastic and all could not be avoided. If I had enough money, I could replace the toilet seat with a ceramic one and the knobs stainless steel. I haven't come up with an alternative for brushing teeth other than not brushing my teeth, which is not recommended.
I continued on with the plastic challenge despite my failure. I ate breakfast with a glass bowl and cup and metal silverware. However, the milk was in a plastic carton. Where I grew up our milk comes in glass bottles, which could be an alternative to the plastic.
I made my bed and got dressed. Plastic is in all my clothes, my bra, my sweater buttons, my winter gear zippers and fabrics.
I went to work. This part of the Plastic Challenge seemed the most difficult. I came up with alternatives, which I do not have money for, for the majority of my plastics, but at work it seems impossible. I work at Carson's Carryout. I had to clock in with my wiscard which is plastic. I did paperwork, but my pens were all plastic (there were no pencils around since they were all being used at the food stations). My calculator was plastic. I could do it by hand, but that allows more human error and when dealing with money, I wanted to eliminate as much error as possible. Then I had to use the computer to input information. Plastic is easy to clean, making it sanitary. When working around food this is important. I was amazed by the amount of plastic that I use at work and was concerned with how if I wanted to live life without plastic how would I reconcile that with the fact that I also need a job, which in most cases uses plastic.
I went home. I looked around for things to do, but everything seems to be plastic, homework notebooks, laptop, books (paperback are more like a plastic paper hybrid), television, and playstation. Even my dirty laundry was in a plastic hamper. At this point my mom called me from Germany. So I answered my cellphone. PLASTIC. I can't seem to avoid plastic even when I try.
Later that night I went out to eat. The napkins were cloth, the plates were glass, the cups were glass, the silverware metal. I was suprised how easy it was to avoid plastic at a sit-down resturaunt.
After dinner I went to the movies. The popcorn came in a cardboard container. The drinks came in a waxy paper cup, no lid and straw and I was good to go. I avoided candy so I didn't have to worry about plastic. Then I walked in and saw the seats. I totally forgot the seats in the American theaters have plastic cupholders. In Germany, where my family lives, there is a wooden shelf in on the back of the seats for the refreshments.
There are many alternatives for home life and even commerical areas, but I still can not figure out how to avoid plastics at work.
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